Karen O’ Leary Beautifully Charts Geographic Locations

Karen O’Leary creates visually stunning minimalistic maps through the erasure of information. The North Carolina-based artist and architect cuts out these meticulous designs by hand. Each map is a simplified version of itself, as O’Leary creates negative space by removing land and water. The maps then show what is left behind, which is a striking webs of streets.

Portraying an array of cities, O’Leary captures Paris, New York City and London. Broken down to the bare bones, the maps appear to be the skeletons of the city that they present. As O’Leary describes on her website, the "map is more than just a navigational tool it also tells a story." These maps are more than that, as they can be classified as works of art.